Chapter 999:

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Eleonora was shown into a dark, oak-paneled study. Her brother, Sterling Rhodes, sat before a crackling fire, reading a file. He was a man in his early fifties, with a stillness about him that was more intimidating than any overt display of power. He glanced up at her tear-streaked, frantic face and merely raised an eyebrow.

The moment she saw him, Eleonora’s composure shattered completely. She fell to her knees on the thick rug, sobbing out the story of Giselle’s kidnapping, the poison, her impending death.

She painted Hilliard as a madman, Cailin as a homewrecker, a twisted, self-serving version of the truth. She begged Sterling to use the Rhodes family’s power, to send his men to the hospital and take Giselle back by force.

Sterling listened to her entire hysterical performance without a single change in his expression. When she was finished, gasping for breath, he asked a simple, quiet question.

“Why was Giselle poisoned?”

Eleonora froze. She stammered, trying to launch into her fabricated story about Charla English’s blackmail.

Sterling cut her off. He picked up a faxed document from the table beside him and tossed it onto the floor in front of her.

It was a corporate advisory notice from the Holloway Group’s legal department, sent to all their major partners. It laid out, in cold, legal detail, the conspiracy between Giselle Van Doren and Charla English to murder Cailin Morton. It included key evidence.

𝘓a𝘁е𝘀𝘵 сh𝘢рte𝘳𝘴 𝗼𝗻 𝗀а𝗅nо𝗏𝖾𝗅𝘀.с𝗼𝗆

Eleonora stared at the paper, a cold dread seeping into her bones. Hilliard was already moving, isolating them, cutting them off.

Sterling’s voice was like the snap of winter ice. “You came here to ask me to commit the Rhodes family to a war against the Holloways and the Crofts. For a foolish girl who started a fight she couldn’t win. For a murderer.”

“She’s your niece!” Eleonora cried. “She has Rhodes blood!”

The study door opened. A young woman in riding boots and a tailored jacket walked in. She had her father’s sharp, intelligent eyes. It was his daughter, Lara Rhodes.

Lara glanced at her aunt on the floor, then addressed her father. “I just received an update. Uncle Donovan has agreed to hand over the antidote. But he’s also launched a deep-level investigation into Cailin Morton’s background.”

Lara’s words sent a fresh wave of panic through Eleonora.

Lara then turned her cool, assessing gaze on her aunt. A small, mocking smile played on her lips. “You had better pray Uncle Donovan doesn’t find anything interesting, Aunt Eleonora. Or you’ll lose more than just a daughter.”

Eleonora turned back to her brother, her last hope.

Sterling rose from his chair and stood over her.

“Eleonora,” he said, his voice soft but final. “Have you forgotten the first rule of this family?”

She stared up at him, her mind blank with despair.

Lara answered for him, her voice crisp and merciless. “We do not pay for messes we create.”

Sterling looked down at his sister’s broken form. “Your daughter made a mistake. It is her father’s responsibility to clean it up. The Rhodes family will not interfere.”

He paused, then delivered the final, killing blow. “That is a truth you should have understood the day you married into the Van Doren family.”

Eleonora crumpled, all the fight, all the hope, draining out of her.

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